The Curious case of Jenson Button
Since my article in last month’s report, Formula 1 has been turned on its head. There was talk about KERS playing a big part in this years championship. And it has, but nothing has changed things like Mr Button’s Brawn GP car has.
If you look through last months report and you will see no mention of Button or his car, other than a sporting bet 150/1 for his team to win the constructors championship.
Buttons career was going in reverse the past year and his team Honda had pulled out of F1.
Two weeks before the first race on 29th March he had no team, no car, no job.
Then appeared Ross Brawn, formally with Ferrari and the man behind Michael Schumacher’s seven world championships. He liked the team so much he bought them and did what he does best, which is to build a wining team. He then got Virgin’s Richard Branson to Australia to see them qualify on pole and go onto win. This ensured Virgin as a Sponsor so they can continue through the 2009 season (£250million to run a team for season).
Now Ross Brawn is not just smart business man, he can also make the most of technical ambiguities. Hence the diffuser in Brawn GP’s car that has helped Button win twice in a row. Check my article on 27th March and forum post on the 4th April respectively.
There has been a ruling and an appeal is coming up on April 14th, but the stewards who decided that there was no issue will be the same stewards in the appeal so I don’t see any changes.
This means that all the teams like Maclaren and Ferrari will have to get their act together.
Maclaren have other issues not least the fiasco In Australia, Hamilton got caught along with a senior member of the Maclaren team lying to the stewards and trying to get another driver penalised. This was all done rather amateurishly, cameras and radios don’t lie. Clearly Hamilton is not happy with the team, you can see by his body language in the garage, he hops out of his car keeps his helmet on and goes straight to his trailer. Trouble is brewing there me thinks.
Ferrari just don’t seem happy and the issue of Rakkionoon being one of the laziest drivers means they won’t get their act together very quickly.
Brawn GP are not the only team who have discovered the benefit of a diffuser design, and I am sure the others will make the most of it while they are ahead of the game.
The top four in the drivers championship are all using their version of the diffuser as well as the two top teams in the constructor championship. I have pulled off the current odds and standings of the teams and drivers.
Driver Championship Odds
Jenson Button (15/8) Felipe Massa (9) Kimi Raikkonen (9) Lewis Hamilton(10) Rubens Barrichello(10)
Current Standings after 2 races
01 Jenson Button 15
02 Rubens Barrichello 10
03 Jarno Trulli 8.5
04 Timo Glock 8
05 Nick Heidfeld 4
06 Fernando Alonso 4
07 Nico Rosberg 3.5
08 Sebastien Buemi 2
09 Mark Webber 1.5
10 Lewis Hamilton 1
Constructors Championship Odds
Brawn GP (7/5) Ferrai (3) Toyota (8)
Current Standings after 2 races
01 Brawn-Mercedes 25
02 Toyota 16.5
03 BMW Sauber 4
04 Renault 4
05 Williams-Toyota 3.5
06 STR-Ferrari 3
07 RBR-Renault 1.5
08 McLaren-Mercedes 1
09 Force India-Mercedes 0
10 Ferrari 0
It is going to be a very interesting season, keep an eye out on the forum as I will be posting more F1 info coming up to the next race in China on 19th April.
Any questions you might have about F1 post them and I will do my best to answer them
Paul Norman
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